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5.0 out of 5 starsToo soon to tell, but this could be a CLASSIC!
The Chemicals always promised a classic dance album, and with Come With Us I think they might just've done it, folks!In reality, it's probably too soon to tell, but in future years, I pretty much expect this album to be ranked alongside the likes of Screamdelica and Leftism as THE all time great dance albums.After the hit and miss affair of Surrender, and Exit...

2.0 out of 5 starsVery Disappointing
Having listened to the full CD several times I couldnt point the finger at why i disliked the CD so much. Then i realised why after listening back to the first two albums this CD simply does not live up to the very high standards set. While I thought Surrender was reasoanble standard, unusally for a a group such as The Chemical Brothers seem to get worse with every album...

The Chemicals always promised a classic dance album, and with Come With Us I think they might just've done it, folks!In reality, it's probably too soon to tell, but in future years, I pretty much expect this album to be ranked alongside the likes of Screamdelica and Leftism as THE all time great dance albums.After the hit and miss affair of Surrender, and Exit Planet Dust not dating at all well - Dig Your Own Hole was probably the album I would have recommended to any would-be Chemicals fans.So it's my pleasure that Come With Us harks back to Dig Your Own Hole's funkyness and 'deep down and dirty' grooves, but instead of DYOH's weak spots (piku, don't stop the rock), I've yet to find ANY on Come With Us.One of the greatest things about Come With Us, is that it carries you from beginning to end - it's not just a collection of hit songs that don't necessarily gel together - and every track feels like it adds something to the greatness of this album.Tracks to particularly look out for: Come With Us, My Elastic Eye, and Star Guitar.

Quite simply, superb! I wasn't 100% sure about the last album, so I was obviously a bit wary of this one. I wasn't keen on "It Began In Africa", but "Star Guitar" I thought was good. Being a bit of a Chemicals fan and being very bored of my current CD collection, I decided to take the risk and get myself a copy. I'm so glad I did, it has to be their best album to date.As an album it has all the elements to keep you interested and never gets boring, saying that, I would advise to listen to it all the way through rather than skipping to your favourite tracks, this is how it works best. In the context of it all, I find that even "It Began In Africa" works for me now. The production is also top notch (hey guys, what kinda equipment you using these days?!).

I have long awaited this album since Star Guitar was released, I instantly feel in love with that single. When I finally bought the album and put it in my stereo system the first track belw me away. There are some fantastic rythms throughout the album. Those who are looking for some really hard stuff may be slightly dissapointed. The latter half of the album has a more chilled approach, but still the tracks are really good. Overall a great album with some really good new tracks. WARNING! If there is poor bass on ur stereo, don't bother buyin. This album requires a decent bass to come across really well.

Wow - this album really is stunning. I've been a Chemicals fan ever since the original release of 'Song To The Siren', and have largely enjoyed their output, but they've totally surpassed themselves with this album. If you've heard 'It Began In Afrika' - good as it is, it's probably the most conventional Chemicals track on the album - you may have thought that you'd heard it all before, but this album rewards you with so much more.Leaving the big-beat sound far behind, and starting with the storming, swirling title track, this shows a level of class, production, and - yes - songwriting that is head and shoulders above the dance music competition. Moving on to 'It Began In Afrika' (the title sample is a dance music sample-library classic), you get some classic Chemicals, raging overdriven synths, tweaky 303, with a really great driving live conga player jamming over the top. The track ends up with a beautifully programmed scratch-breakdown section, before slowing the tempo down a little to drop you into the sample-slap-bass-funk of 'Galaxy Bounce', a great little number.However, it's when we get into track 4, 'Star Guitar' that you know things are cookin' on gas with this album - it's a great wide open, sweeping, psychedelic number with the drifing looped vocal line "You should feel what I feel, you should take what I take".As that tune drifts out to the cosmos, we come back down to Earth with probably my favourite track of the whole album - Hoops. Innocently starting with some fluffy reversed sitar loops, a great vocal sample, and some lovely acoustic guitar, the gentle 808 drum track in the background gradually picks up more and more momentum, like the small stones starting an avalanche, until a lovely scale played up the guitar brings us to the bassline, then the real meat of the track kicks in with a great 808 electro beat, and behold - a storming track that brings together an acoustic guitar and an 808 drum machine and gets them a hotel room to get down and dirty.From peak to peak, we move on to "My Elastic Eye", a staccato intro takes us to a great wobbling analog bassline, building up to the star of the tune, a great, wide-open sample that sounds like an angel yodelling in space(!)After all this action we are relieved by the Beth Orton Collaboration(TM), which is really rather beautiful, a slow, trippy, soulful number yet with all the little production wierdnesses you'd expect from the Chemicals - "The State We're In" is definitely a classic chill tune, until after five lovely minutes it starts accelerating the tempo, more and more movement, faster and faster, until we're properly back in House Music land, from whence we are tossed happily into the four to the floor "Denmark" - a nice little club number, with classily sampled slap bass riffs and hooky hooks.The following track, "Pioneer Skies", a long, slowly building trippy, spacey wonder is (on your first listen) this album's most direct descendent of "The Private Psychedelic Reel", a really nice melodic fantasy that drifts off beautifully into the sunset, leaving you lying on the warm beach, satisfied.However, Tom & Ed have one more trick up their sleeves - they kept the best till last - "The Test" (featuring Richard Ashcroft). This is a _killer_ tune, starting with eastern flutes and fading in synths as Ashcroft's distinctive voice welcomes us, beckons us in to his house, until slamming the front door behind us, bolting it, and busting out the track proper, a hands-in-the-air stormer, a delerious, joyful ode to partying.. "You know I almost lost my mind, but now I'm home, and I'm free".The albums is without doubt an essential purchase, and will - I guarantee - feature in many people's "top 10 of 2002" lists.Congratulations to Tom & Ed for continuing and furthering their career with such style.

I liked "Dig your own hole", I loved "Surrender", and the Chemical Brothers' latest offering, "Come With Us" is better than both of them.It has a more professional, polished sound associated with it, and the style of the album is more varied. Rather than all the tracks being all about heavy and complex drum beats and perfectly engineered samples, the inclusion of "Star Guitar" and "The State We're In" stand out brilliantly against the original Chemical Brothers sound. However, all has not changed, the drums of "It Began In Afrika" and the samples of "My Elastic Eye" prove that the Chemical Brothers have not forgotton the basics.The songs that most impressed me on the "Surrender" were "Let Forever Be" and "Out Of Control". Both of these featured a brilliant vocalist composer. Sure enough, the track of the album is, for me, "The Test" . The formula is the same: Strong vocals (this time by Richard Ashcroft) over the top of a typically Chemical Brothers style background. But the Chemical Brothers have added the extra dimension (as they have to all tracks on this album) of a more powerful treble. This makes the song more complete than the ones on "Surrender".That is all that I can say about "Come With Us" other than simply praising it more. You really must listen to it yourself!

Having listened to the full CD several times I couldnt point the finger at why i disliked the CD so much. Then i realised why after listening back to the first two albums this CD simply does not live up to the very high standards set. While I thought Surrender was reasoanble standard, unusally for a a group such as The Chemical Brothers seem to get worse with every album. The first album was so fresh and vital, the second album was much darker but still refreshingly and occasionally mesmorising. Surrender was an unexpected step into the mainstream with a slicker sound that occasioanlly benefitted the music. So where does Come with us go wrong? So difficult to pinpoint - but in tracks such as Hoops the constant changing of noises and wrongly placed samples over a 1990s techno esque ministry of sound background is not good enough in 2002. While It Began In Afrika was I felt one of their weakest singles it still manages to outshine most tracks on the album. The problem is most tracks start promisingly but end up changing or having misguided samples or steel drums in the background. The opening tune is very good escpecially the 'Fight...fight' bit. But it stumbles towards the end. A lack of hooks is very noticeable. Star Guitar is lovely I guess although i dont expect the chemicals to sound like Daft Punk it is quite a nice tune. A second star is awarded for the fantastic closing track The Test which is simply a great tune with Richard Ashcroft singing the best song of his career. My Elastic eye is ok - reminiscent of Surrender tunes, Denmark is just an average dance tune and Pioneer Skies is not up too much. The State Were In is a strange tune but one that has grown on me - a strange hybrid of electronica and folk/country featuring Beth Orton for the third time in a chemical brothers album. (Check out Alive Alone on the first album -its a classic) On this 4th album the chemical brothers have clearly lost their way - the album sounds too polished for my liking and it lacks the wonderful feel of the first album especially. When i see all these good reviews below im not impressed as people clearly seem to have forgotten how good they used to be.

From the first bass line to the last drum beat this album from the Chemical Brothers excudes class. The new collaborations with Beth Orton and Richard Ashcroft are truly magnificent, with the latter being and outstanding finale to the album.The Chemical Brothers are true pioneers of this genre and of music in general, and this album merely enforces that belief. All 3 previous Chemical Brothers albums are superb, and Come With Us is a worthy addition to any collection. PreOrder ASAP!!!!

Come With Us is patchily brilliant, but sounds a world away from 1999's Surrender. This is not to say that Tom and Ed should not stretch new boundaries, but the album sounds incomplete and unfocused, a weakness which plagued 2005's Push The Button. The stomping title track, with acid loops, vocoder vocals, and eclectic beats, is classic Chemicals, and Star Guitar is one of their finest achievements. Galaxy Bounce does bounce, and Hoops contains a terrific My Bloody Valentine guitar within a track that accomplishes everything. Yet from here, the album struggles, with the messy "My Elastic Eye", and the meandering "Pioneer Skies". "It Began In Afrika" made the album cut because of its popularity in Ibiza, and certainly sends you on a journey, but Beth Orton's vocals on "The State We're In" fail to take you anywhere. "The Test" is a big, bold finale, but you still feel Tom and Ed could have done much better.

With "Come with us", the chemical brothers continue their psychedelic inspired direction of break beats, which began on their last album "surrender". Althought there is nothing revolutionary about their new album, the tracks still posess that energy that makes you want to jump of a cliff and see if you can fly. Not as rough as their first two albums "Exit planet dust" and "dig your own hole", "come with us" still sends you on a trip to new dimensions without the use of narcotics. Tracks like "the test", "come with us" and "hoops" are simply out of this world. For the chemical brother fan, no further words are needed, for a newcomer this album will definitely make your mouth water for more magical dust...

This is an extremely difficult item to review because none of the songs are actually in my head, predictably because none of them particularly stood out with the sole exception of "The Test"

10 songs is quite a short amount of songs and each one of them is rather average so you would probably want to buy this used if you had the option - you can't really buy a 10 year old CD and call it new and it would be more expensive.

The Test is a fantastic song and is brilliant to round off the CD although it is generally slow paced so would have created more effect had it been placed at the beginning. It would have built up to the more fast paced songs.

All I can say is, if you like Chemical Brothers buy it, if you don't, leave it as it is nothing special.